by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 186: Rally, Ollie’s New Boat, Jed Home from Switzerland
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 77, Low 66 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The 4th of July fireworks were great last night. Heather, Ollie, and I chose to stay far away from Falmouth Heights Beach. Instead of fighting the crowds, we drove out toward Woods Hole and parked at Trunk River. We then walked a way back toward town on the bike path and found a stretch of beach all to ourselves. We sat close to water and listened to the waves lapping ashore while also listening to the music on Heather’s phone that accompanied the fireworks. Jonah had been at an all afternoon party at Corner Cycle and spent the evening at the home of one of the guys that works there, enjoying his parents’ pool and hot tub. So, we missed Jonah, but he had a great time where he was. Sam and Jed are still in Europe, so we didn’t have them either.
Today it was back to the Green for the every Saturday Freedom Rally. The regulars that attend includes on a very few people I know and none of my circle of friends. But I enjoy being there and each week and I leave more encouraged than when I arrive.
I stopped by Heather’s on the way home and found Ollie in the driveway taking the tires off a trailer that had a Sunfish sailboat on it. He bought it at a neighborhood yard sale and I took him to Sullivan Tires to order new tires for the trailer. He saves all the money he makes mowing lawns, so he had enough to buy it on his own with a $100 contribution from his mom.
Jed was not home yet, but he did get home from his week in Switzerland later in the afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 185: The Fourth of July, Today and 249 Years Ago
Date: Friday, July 4, 2025
Weather: Perfect Cape Cod Summer Day; High Temp 77, Low 58 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This post is borrowed from my daughter’s Facebook page. I reposted it on my Facebook page and copy it here because it says everything that needs to be said on this day.
249 years ago. In between the parades, cookouts, and fireworks, please take a few minutes to sit with these words and reflect on their meaning.
July 4th does not mark victory in the war for independence, but rather, the moment when the need for drastic change and the gravity of the situation were formally recognized, and the principles for a new beginning were articulated. The world has changed in countless ways both large and small (including our ideas about capitalization as you will see as you read on), and we have yet to fully live up to those principles and ideals. Still, they are the foundation of our nation and important to remember.
Government is established to secure the inherent and equal rights of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Its power derives from the consent of the governed.
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In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security …
by Judy Handley | Jul 3, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 184: Sad, Angry, but Determined
Date: Thursday, July 3, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Wind and Rain Late Evening; High Temp 76, Low 63 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Well, that big, UGLY bill was voted in this afternoon. It makes me so sad and angry that the US Congress would pass such an egregious budget bill: sad for what the one trillion dollars taken from Medicaid is going mean for so many Americans and angry that the richest Americans are getting the benefit of that. It is Robin Hood in reverse. But being sad and angry is not going to do anyone any good. I am more determined than ever to do whatever I can to turn around the direction in which our country is headed.
Otherwise, my day was a typical day. I started with routine medical appointment and then went to the Farmers Market for the first time this summer and had lunch there with Heather and Ollie. Afterwards, Heather took me to pick up my car. The oil was changed and the windshield wipers replaced, but the check engine light was still on. They determined that car needs a new oxygen sensor and gasket, but the cost for that is almost $400 with labor. I was told that not fixing it right away is not going to damage anything, so I will wait and have that work done when I am feeling richer than I do today.
This afternoon, Ollie cut my neighbor’s grass, I took Jonah to the high school for an unofficial soccer practice, and when I headed to Bruce and Jane Woodin’s for an evening with my dining-in group, Heather and Ollie headed to the beach. Dinner at the Woodin’s was outside on their deck. We had bruschetta for the appetizer, an edamame salad over arugula and mixed greens salad, grilled chicken and veggies for the main course, and s’more squares for dessert. A perfect summer cookout on a perfect summer evening … until after dinner when we had quite the windstorm followed by rain. That moved us quickly indoors.
by Judy Handley | Jul 2, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 183: The Midpoint of 2025
Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Overnight; High Temp 75, Low 68 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today, July 2, is the midpoint of 2025. We are halfway through the year. We have survived the first 182 days and now have 182 to go. We are also now closer to the year 2050 than to the year 2000. So, happy midpoint!
The high point of my day was trying a new recipe I saw in the New York Times on Monday … S’mores Brownies. I just had to try them and used Ollie and Jonah as my excuse for making them. These bars have three layers: a graham cracker bottom, a gooey chocolate brownie center, and a toasted marshmallow top. S’mores are a summer favorite. These come in a close second.
This evening at sunset, I took time to “smell the roses.” Actually, I have no roses in my yard, but I have purple, raspberry pink, and blue hydrangea, rusty orange, bright orange, and pinkish orange lilies, white and yellow daisies, and numerous varieties of plants with lilac to purple blossoms. Bathed in the muted light at sunset, they were still as brilliant and beautiful as in the sunshine … which we did not see today.
by Judy Handley | Jul 1, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 182: A New Month
Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Overnight; High Temp 75, Low 68 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
For me, the new month of July began with a trip to see the friend who is a metal worker in Mattapoisett. I met Peter when I was looking for someone to weld a seam on one of Ardenna’s spreaders. Peter repaired the stay but was also a wealth of information when I was hunting for a boom. Today I took a stainless steel pin that needed to be cut shorter and have a new hole drilled near the bottom end. I knew Peter could do this in just a few minutes, so off I went. Peter, who is my age, and his wife Jodie live on the land Peter’s father bought before Peter was born. I don’t know how old the house is, but it has been there many years. There are also a few old, some dilapidated, out buildings on the property, one of which is Peter’s metal shop. When we stepped inside, it was freezing cold. Peter then started telling me the story of how all of the buildings on the property sit on top of or alongside of a massive piece of granite that extends for miles. When he was a kid, he played in the quarry in Achusnet which is a few miles from his place. He was told that the granite extended from Achusnet to his father’s property on Buzzards Bay and then reappeared on the Cape Cod side of the bay at Otis Air Force Base. All I know for sure is that it keeps his metal shop which is above ground around 55 degrees F this time of year. Peter said his father built the buildings on the granite so they would have natural air conditioning. And they certainly do. Our conversation went way beyond the 20 minutes it took to cut off the end of the pin and then drill a new hole. That in itself was a fascinating process to watch.
I didn’t get back to Falmouth until almost 1 pm. But because it was a mostly cloudy day and not all that warm, Ollie had declared this a day to do nothing. No beach today. So, we just hung out until Jonah headed to a soccer game late afternoon. Ollie mowed the grass in his yard and put the bike rack back on my car after being stored away for the winter. Sometime in the afternoon, I went home to check on Shadow and while there, I made the mistake of checking my email. I then had to deal with a Library Trustee issue and send some emails dealing with that. That was about it for the first day of July.
by Judy Handley | Jun 30, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 180: From Camp Oma to Summer Assistant
Date: Monday, June 30, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 67 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Camp Oma for teenagers is quite different from prior years. I don’t need to come up with activities for Jonah and Ollie. They are quite busy all on their own. I just need to assist. I took Jonah to soccer practice this morning and came back to their house to prep dinner for tonight. It is a Select Board Monday, and with Jed out of town and Heather in an all evening meeting, I did dinner for the boys. I also made some calls for appointments. Shadow has developed a strange growth on his eyelid over the past 3-4 weeks, and I was able to get an appointment for this afternoon. My car needs an oil change, and the check engine light came on last week, so I made an appointment for that as well. I did this while Ollie cut the neighbor’s grass and Jonah was at soccer practice. After I picked Jonah up from soccer, I got lunch for the boys and then took Shadow to the vet.
This visit was to the same veterinary practice that has seen Shadow when he was a puppy.
But today I saw a different doctor with a different take on Shadow’s gastrointestinal issues. She thinks he has severe allergies and wants me to put him on a prescription diet. He has an ear infection, and she thinks the strange little puffy bump on his eyelid is caused by the allergies. $350 later, we walked out of the vet’s office, and I am still not sure what I am going to do.
I went back to get Ollie to go to the beach, but none of his friends were going to the beach today, so he decided to go to my neighbor’s house to cut the front yard grass. Ollie is taking care of my neighbor’s lawn while he is out of town. It was a good decision not to go to the beach as it suddenly got cloudy. The high temp this week is in the 70’s, not the 80’s like last week. And when the sun goes behind the clouds, it doesn’t feel like beach weather to Ollie.
